


An Important Question

by OnTheRoadSoFar



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Destiel - Freeform, Destiel Daily Drabble, Destiel Week, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 13:09:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8286953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnTheRoadSoFar/pseuds/OnTheRoadSoFar
Summary: Coda to 12x1, "Keep Calm and Carry On"While Dean is getting supplies at the gas station store late that night on their way to the bunker, Mary asks Cas a question to which the answer might turn out to be a different one than Cas had initially wanted to give.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A part two is on the way!

The parking spaces were bathed in a soothing, fluorescent light of deep purple against the darkness of the road, and the first traces of a mid-autumn breeze, which he knew to be chilly from the way Dean had pulled up his shoulders and hurried with the gas, played silently with his hair and the labels of his coat. 

Cas was leaning against the Impala, with his hands in his pockets and his gaze fixed passively ahead towards a gas station store which had clearly seen better days. Dean had disappeared into its pool of bright white light a few minutes earlier to get supplies. With the day they had had, neither him nor Mary had remembered, nor cared, to eat at all, and the bunker kitchen, Dean announced, was "empty as hell". They'd had a lot on their plates lately, what with the world ending and all everything; gourmet dinners had been pretty low on the general priority list, even for Sam. 

Cas' mind seemed to wander off from his body - seemed for a moment to leave his earthly confinement and join the elements around him, like the way he had been before. He used to be everywhere and nowhere, all the time, and always able to see and know what everybody was doing and feeling. Before he came to Earth, this kind of heavenly omnipotence had been so natural to him that he never even gave it any thought. Now, with feet, his feet, planted firmly on solid ground, things were more complicated. He could still touch people, use his hands and take from them their innermost thoughts and emotional responses. And he did it, too, from time to time, when the situation called for it. But it was so very different these days, much less natural. He couldn't help but feel the wrong he did in disrespecting a person's privacy like that. He supposed that was a human thing to think and feel this way, but he didn't care. He let his mind wander up and out, reaching as far as the moaning of the swaying pines ahead and the burning of a dying star, and then back again, to the wind in his hair and purple light from the neon sign above the store. 

He had invaded Dean's privacy that day in the bunker. Pressed against the warmth of Dean's body, alive and well, and home, Cas' angelic powers of perception had involuntarily turned themselves on, just for a split second, and at that brief, but defining, moment had caught the piecing, familiar yet new sensation of love which had radiated from Dean's mind. Hesitant at first, and then at full force, it reassured Cas that he was indeed a true part of the Winchester family. Dean had been just as happy to see Cas again as Cas had been to learn that Dean, the man he would do anything and everything for, was still here, with him, on Earth, talking, smiling, breathing, being. 

The sudden sound of a door opening broke Cas' train of thought and returned him to the gas station. Mary came around to his side of the car and positioned herself in a similar fashion, facing the lights. She seemed both tired and restless, and Cas meant to say something comforting about Dean promising to hurry so they could get back home, but Mary spoke before he could get out the first word. 

"Good to know there's one thing that hasn't changed."  
"Fall showers", she added, looking up at Cas. He smiled softly, understandingly, and she acknowledged it. They really did have much in common. 

"It won't rain until we're back at the bunker", Cas reassured her.  
"You angel's control the weather, too?"  
Cas let out a tiny chuckle, looking down.  
"The guy on the radio said so."  
"Oh. I wasn't quite paying attention." A cloud of something inexplicable took momentary hold of her features, before it once again faded and left her looking even more tired than before. 

"You seem really close", she suddenly said, her voice lighter, with just the smallest hint of what Cas could only describe as curiosity.  
"You and Dean", she added.  
"Uh, yes. Or, um, yes we are. I suppose we are." Why was he rambling?  
"How long have you known each other?"  
This Cas knew: "Eight years and one month. We met in hell. That is not a metaphor."  
This earned him a quiet giggle which seemed to say that she really wasn't surprised. That after today, he could tell her absolutely anything, and she would probably believe it all.  
"Well, I'm glad you did meet, whatever the circumstances. You seem... good for him. For each other. I'm glad you've been watching over him and Sammy."  
"Sometimes it feels like they're the ones who've been looking after me." It was the truth, too.  
"Well, that's what it's all about", she said, confidently. "Family."  
They shared another smile, a meaningful one. Cas felt her eyes expressing both gratitude and acceptance, and he was thankful for her trust.  
"What about Sam?" Her voice almost broke at the mentioning of his name, but she composed herself quickly, resuming her initial curiosity. Cas understood then and there just how good a mother she might have been to his best friends, had fate, or a yellow-eyed demon, not wanted it differently. "Is he seeing someone, too?"  
Cas frowned in confusing and sent a pair of squinting eyes in Mary's general direction.  
"No, Sam isn't seeing anyone. Neither is Dean, they-"  
"What do you mean?"  
"I mean they don't have time, and a hunter's life is-"  
"No", Mary interrupted, "what do you mean Dean isn't seeing anyone? I thought-" She went silent. Then again: "You mean the two of you aren't-"

She didn't get to finish a sentence Cas felt pretty certain he knew the ending to, and embarrassment suddenly made his tummy all knotty and his hands all tingly. He didn't want Dean to know about his mother's misinterpretation - God knew he had enough on his plate, and he wouldn't like this, Cas felt sure of it - but Cas was unable to explain the actual situation to her before Dean had reached the car, a couple of paper bags in his arms, and then, well, parents will be parents. 

"You and Cas aren't together?"  
Dean looked as if he was 100% done with everything the world had to throw at him today. He closed his eyes, then opened them again.  
"What now? Tog-? Um, what have you two been talking about? How long was I gone?"  
"I asked Cas how long you two had known each other", Mary said, "and he insists that you aren't, you know, together. Dating."  
Dean dropped the bags in the back seat with more force than was necessary, and Cas very much wanted to go bury himself in the ground somewhere. Or fly away. Dammit, he missed his wings sometimes.  
"Look", Dean began, "I'm sure I don't know what gave you *that* impression, but no, no, we most certainly are not- I mean, it's not that, you know, there's anything wr- Cas is my friend, our friend. That's all. I mean, that's it. Right, Cas?"  
Cas had forgotten how this odd human body of his functioned. It seemed neither capable of movement nor sound-making at the present moment.  
"Cas?"  
"Yes. I mean, no. Or yes, what Dean said, it's true. Friends."  
Dean wasn't angry, more disbelieving. It must have come completely out of the blue to him that anyone would think this about them. Not that Cas had given it much thought, either - why would he, it was pointless - and yet in that moment he was sure his legs would not be able to hold him any longer, and he hurried up and took the backseat, with the paper bags, and left shotgun for Mary. Better this way. Safer. 

"Sorry I got the wrong idea", she said in a kind tone, as the engine hummed itself to life, and Dean turned back down the road, yellow headlights flickering in the misty night air. Maybe they wouldn't beat the rain after all. 

Back at the bunker, Dean and Cas were left alone in the library for a while as Mary had something to eat in the kitchen.  
"I'm sorry about my mom thinking, you know-", Dean said softly, making sure his voice didn't travel further than Cas' ear. "I really don't know how she could have... seen us- it that way." Was he just as embarrassed as Cas had been? 

"Maybe she knows something we don't."

Cas didn't say it out loud. First of all, he wasn't really sure of how Dean would react if Cas told him that while Dean's friendship meant more to him than anything, any powers, wings, mortality, anything, ever had, he could not seem to let go of the feeling he had experienced when he had seen Dean alive today, having thought he had lost him forever. It was like no other feeling Cas had ever known. Pure. All encompassing. Overwhelming. Simple. Forever. Maybe Dean would take it the wrong way if he knew. How could Cas ever explain this feeling to him? Showing him would be so much easier, but Dean wasn't an angel, couldn't invade another being's feelings like Cas could, so how *could* he ever show him? What did humans do exactly?  
Second of all, now wasn't the right time. 

"Don't worry about it" was all Cas could say. And for now, he didn't, either.


End file.
